Automatic coloring of line drawing

ABSTRACT

A line drawing automatic coloring method according to the present disclosure includes: acquiring line drawing data of a target to be colored; receiving at least one local style designation for applying a selected local style to at least one place of the acquired line drawing data; and performing coloring processing reflecting the local style designation on the line drawing data based on a learned model for coloring in which it is learned in advance using the line drawing data and the local style designation as inputs.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit and priority to Japanese applicationnumber JP2017-108427 filed Sep. 20, 2017, the disclosure of which isincorporated in its entirety by reference herein.

BACKGROUND Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a line drawing automatic coloringprogram, a line drawing automatic coloring device, and a line drawingautomatic coloring method for automatically coloring a line drawingimage.

Related Art

In recent years, machine learning using a neural network having amultilayer structure, called deep learning has been applied in variousfields. The machine learning has also been prominently utilized and hasachieved a remarkable result in a field of image processing such asimage recognition and image generation.

SUMMARY

A line drawing automatic coloring program according to the presentdisclosure is a line drawing automatic coloring program for causing acomputer to realize processing for automatically performing coloring online drawing data, the line drawing automatic coloring program causingthe computer to realize the following functions: a line drawing dataacquiring function of acquiring line drawing data of a target to becolored; a local style designation receiving function of receiving atleast one local style designation for applying a selected local style toany place of the acquired line drawing data; and a coloring processingfunction of performing coloring processing reflecting the local styledesignation received by the local style designation receiving functionon the line drawing data acquired by the line drawing data acquiringfunction based on a learned model for coloring in which it is learned inadvance to perform coloring processing while reflecting the local styleon the line drawing data using the line drawing data and the local styledesignation as inputs.

In addition, in the line drawing automatic coloring program according tothe present disclosure, the local style designation receiving functionincludes: a reference image acquiring function of acquiring at least onereference image from which a user desires to extract the local style; alocal style extraction place designating function of receiving at leastone designation of a place from which the user desires to extract thelocal style in the acquired reference image; a local style extractingfunction of performing extraction processing of extracting the localstyle from the reference image with respect to at least one designatedplace designated by the local style extraction place designatingfunction; and a local style application designating function ofdesignating a place to which the local style extracted by the localstyle extracting function is applied with respect to the line drawingdata acquired by the line drawing data acquiring function.

In addition, in the line drawing automatic coloring program according tothe present disclosure, the local style designation receiving functionis configured to receive at least one local style designation selectedby a user from a plurality of local styles extracted in advance byextraction processing and stored by a storage means.

In addition, in the line drawing automatic coloring program according tothe present disclosure, in the extraction processing for the localstyle, the local style is extracted based on a learned model for a localstyle in which it is learned in advance to extract the local style fromany place of the reference image.

In addition, in the line drawing automatic coloring program according tothe present disclosure, an encoder obtained by preparing plural sets ofline drawing data and coloring correct answer image data and executingthe following steps for the plural sets of line drawing data andcoloring correct answer image data is set to the learned model for alocal style, each set having line drawing data and coloring correctanswer image data representing a correct answer coloring state for theline drawing data, and the following steps including: a step ofinputting the coloring correct answer image data as the reference imageto the encoder extracting the local style and generating a local stylemap corresponding to each of all pixels of the input coloring correctanswer image data; a step of picking up at least one local style fromthe local style map extracted by the encoder and inputting the picked uplocal style together with the line drawing data to a decoder; a step ofexecuting coloring processing reflecting the picked up local style onthe line drawing data in the decoder to obtain colored image data; astep of calculating loss of the colored image data with respect to thecoloring correct answer image data by a loss function, using the coloredimage data obtained by the decoder and the coloring correct answer imagedata; and a step of updating parameters of the encoder and the decoderso as to reduce the loss calculated by the loss function.

In addition, in the line drawing automatic coloring program according tothe present disclosure, a decoder obtained by preparing plural sets ofline drawing data and coloring correct answer image data and executingthe following steps for the plural sets of line drawing data andcoloring correct answer image data is set to the learned model forcoloring, each set having line drawing data and coloring correct answerimage data representing a correct answer coloring state for the linedrawing data, and the following steps including: a step of inputting thecoloring correct answer image data as the reference image to an encoderextracting the local style and generating a local style mapcorresponding to each of all pixels of the input coloring correct answerimage data; a step of picking up at least one local style from the localstyle map extracted by the encoder and inputting the picked up localstyle together with the line drawing data to the decoder; a step ofexecuting coloring processing reflecting the picked up local style onthe line drawing data in the decoder to obtain colored image data; astep of calculating loss of the colored image data with respect to thecoloring correct answer image data by a loss function, using the coloredimage data obtained by the decoder and the coloring correct answer imagedata; and a step of updating parameters of the encoder and the decoderso as to reduce the loss calculated by the loss function.

A line drawing automatic coloring device according to the presentdisclosure includes: a line drawing data acquiring unit configured toacquire line drawing data of a target to be colored; a local styledesignation receiving unit configured to receive at least one localstyle designation for applying a selected local style to any place ofthe acquired line drawing data; and a coloring processing unitconfigured to perform coloring processing reflecting the local styledesignation received by the local style designation receiving unit onthe line drawing data acquired by the line drawing data acquiring unitbased on a learned model for coloring in which it is learned in advanceto perform coloring processing while reflecting the local style on theline drawing data using the line drawing data and the local styledesignation as inputs.

In addition, in the line drawing automatic coloring device according tothe present disclosure, the local style designation receiving unitincludes: a reference image acquiring unit configured to acquire atleast one reference image from which a user desires to extract the localstyle; a local style extraction place designating unit configured toreceive at least one designation of a place from which the user desiresto extract the local style in the acquired reference image; a localstyle extracting unit configured to perform extraction processing ofextracting the local style from the reference image with respect to atleast one designated place designated by the local style extractionplace designating unit; and a local style application designating unitconfigured to designate a place to which the local style extracted bythe local style extracting unit is applied with respect to the linedrawing data acquired by the line drawing data acquiring unit.

According to the present disclosure, a line drawing automatic coloringmethod for automatically performing coloring on line drawing dataincludes: a line drawing data acquiring step of acquiring line drawingdata of a target to be colored; a local style designation receiving stepof receiving at least one local style designation for applying aselected local style to any place of the acquired line drawing data; anda coloring processing step of performing coloring processing reflectingthe local style designation received in the local style designationreceiving step on the line drawing data acquired in the line drawingdata acquiring step based on a learned model for coloring in which it islearned in advance to perform coloring processing while reflecting thelocal style on the line drawing data using the line drawing data and thelocal style designation as inputs.

In addition, in the line drawing automatic coloring method according tothe present disclosure, the local style designation receiving stepincludes: a reference image acquiring step of acquiring at least onereference image from which a user desires to extract the local style; alocal style extraction place designating step of receiving at least onedesignation of a place from which the user desires to extract the localstyle in the acquired reference image; a local style extracting step ofperforming extraction processing of extracting the local style from thereference image with respect to at least one designated place designatedin the local style extraction place designating step; and a local styleapplication designating step of designating a place to which the localstyle extracted in the local style extracting step is applied withrespect to the line drawing data acquired in the line drawing dataacquiring step.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a line drawingautomatic coloring device according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a view showing a concept of coloring processing using a localstyle in the line drawing automatic coloring device according to thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a flow of learning of a learned model fora local style and a learned model for coloring that are used in the linedrawing automatic coloring device according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of coloring processing in the linedrawing automatic coloring device according to the present disclosure;and

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a line drawingautomatic coloring device according to a second embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION First Embodiment

Hereinafter, an example of a line drawing automatic coloring deviceaccording to a first embodiment is described with reference to thedrawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a linedrawing automatic coloring device 10 according to the presentdisclosure. It should be noted that the line drawing automatic coloringdevice 10 may be a device designed as a dedicated machine, but it isassumed that the line drawing automatic coloring device 10 is a devicethat can be realized by general computers. In this case, it may beassumed that the line drawing automatic coloring device 10 includes acentral processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), amemory, and a storage such as a hard disk drive that are normallyincluded in the general computers and are not shown. In addition,various types of processing may be executed by a program in order tocause these general computers to function as the line drawing automaticcoloring device 10 according to the present embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, the line drawing automatic coloring device 10includes at least a line drawing data acquiring unit 11 (also referredto as line drawing data acquirer), a reference image acquiring unit 12(also referred to as reference image acquirer), a local style extractionplace designating unit 13 (also referred to as local style extractionplace designator), a local style extracting unit 14 (also referred to aslocal style extractor), a local style application designating unit 15(also referred to as local style application designator), a coloringprocessing unit 16 (also referred to as coloring processor), and astoring unit 17 (also referred to as storage device).

The line drawing data acquiring unit 11 has a function of acquiring linedrawing data of a target to be colored. In the present disclosure, linedrawing, which is the target to be colored, is not particularly limited,but in a learning process of a learning model to be described below, itis preferable to include line drawing data similar to line drawing thata user desires to set as the target to be colored in terms of athickness of a line, a type of touch or the like in line drawing dataprepared as a set together with coloring correct answer image data.

The reference image acquiring unit 12 has a function of acquiringreference image data for extracting a local style that the user desiresto apply to the line drawing data of the target to be colored. Here, thelocal style is a local style related to coloring such as a color, atexture, a gradation, a painting style, a pattern, a highlight, and ashadow.

The local style extraction place designating unit 13 has a function ofdesignating a place at which the user desires to extract the local stylein the reference image data acquired by the reference image acquiringunit 12. The local style is generated using information of neighboringpixels present within a predetermined range with respect to one pixel ofthe reference image data, and when the reference image data is composedof the number of pixels of width W×height H, a local style is generatedfor each pixel, and plural types of styles such as a color, a texture, agradation, a painting style, a pattern, a highlight, and a shadow areextracted for one pixel. Therefore, when the number of types of stylesis set to C, W×H×C local styles can be generated from one referenceimage data.

The local style extracting unit 14 has a function of extracting thelocal style from the reference image data. Extraction processing of thelocal style is performed based on, for example, a learned model for alocal style learned in advance using training data for convolutionalneural networks (CNN). It is possible to appropriately set up to whichrange the neighboring data to use for extracting the local style for onepixel of the reference image data, and extraction may be performed by aplurality of patterns with respect to up to which range the neighboringpixels are used for extracting the local style. The extractionprocessing in the local style extracting unit 14 may be a method ofperforming extraction processing only on the place designated by thelocal style extraction place designating unit 13 or may be a method ofperforming extraction processing of local styles on all pixels of thereference image data.

The local style application designating unit 15 has a function ofdesignating which the local style extracted from the place designated bythe local style extraction place designating unit 13 is applied to whicharea in the line drawing data of the target to be colored. The localstyle for the line drawing data may be designated at one place or may bedesignated at a plurality of places. In addition, all of the C types oflocal styles extracted from one pixel designated by the local styleextraction place designating unit 13 may be applied to the designatedplace of the line drawing data or a specific local style of the C typesof local styles may be selected and be applied to the designated placeof the line drawing data. Any local styles and any characters of anylocal styles selected by the user can be applied. For example, it can beapplied that only the local style related to the texture of the localstyles extracted from one pixel designated by the local style extractionplace designating unit 13 without applying the local style related tothe color of the local styles.

The coloring processing unit 16 has a function of performing coloringprocessing reflecting the local style designated for the line drawingdata. The coloring processing is performed based on, for example, alearned model. An example of the learned model for coloring is in whichit is learned in advance to perform coloring processing reflecting thelocal style on the line drawing data using the line drawing data and thedesignation of the application place of at least one local style for theline drawing data as inputs. Colored image data is obtained byperforming the coloring processing by the coloring processing unit 16.

The storing unit 17 has a function of storing data required for variousprocessing performed in the line drawing automatic coloring device 10including the line drawing data acquiring unit 11, the reference imageacquiring unit 12, the local style extraction place designating unit 13,the local style extracting unit 14, the local style applicationdesignating unit 15, the coloring processing unit 16 and the like, anddata obtained as a result of the processing.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a concept of coloring processing using a localstyle in the line drawing automatic coloring device 10 according to thepresent disclosure. In the line drawing automatic coloring device 10according to the present disclosure, when automatically coloring theline drawing data, it is possible to extract the local style desired bythe user from a reference image and reflect the extracted local style onthe line drawing data. Three reference images A, B, and C are shown onthe left side of FIG. 2. When the user desires to use a portion of thesky of a background of the reference image A as a background of the linedrawing data, the user designates one place of the background of thereference image A, extracts the local style from the designated point,and designates a place of the sky of the line drawing data as a point onwhich the user desires to reflect the local style extracted from thereference image A. In addition, when the user desires to use anexpression of body hair of a cat of the reference image B for coloringof a dog of the line drawing data, the user designates one place of abody hair portion of the reference image B, extracts the local stylefrom the designated point, and designates a body portion of the dog ofthe line drawing data as a point on which the user desires to reflectthe local style extracted from the reference image B. When the userdesires to use a texture of a belt of a wristwatch of the referenceimage C for coloring of a hat of the line drawing data, the userdesignates one place of a belt portion of the wristwatch of thereference image C, extracts the local style from the designated point,and designates a hat portion of the line drawing data as a point onwhich the user desires to reflect the local style extracted from thereference image C. As described above, using the local styles areextracted from each of the reference images A, B, and C, the places onthe line drawing data on which the user desires to reflect the localstyles are designated, and the coloring processing is performed on theplaces, colored image data shown on the right side of FIG. 2 byperforming the coloring on the line drawing data is obtained. Hatchingis performed to only the places at which the local styles are designatedin the colored image data on the right side of FIG. 2, but although notexpressed in FIG. 2, for example, the coloring processing may be alsoautomatically performed on other places at which the local styles arenot designated.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of flow of learning of alearned model for a local style and a learned model for coloring thatare used in the line drawing automatic coloring device 10 according tothe present disclosure. A learning method does not need to be one, andvarious learning processes can be used. For example, learning thelearned model for a local style for extracting the local style and thelearned model for coloring for performing the coloring processing can besimultaneously carried out.

For learning, plural sets of line drawing data and coloring correctanswer image data are prepared, each set having line drawing data andcoloring correct answer image data representing a correct answercoloring state for the line drawing data. A set of line drawing data andcoloring correct answer image data can be prepared by extracting onlythe line drawing data from the coloring correct answer image data byedge extraction or the like.

In starting the learning processing, first, two convolutional neuralnetworks including an encoder extracting a local style from a referenceimage and a decoder performing the coloring processing on the linedrawing data are prepared as convolutional neural networks performinglearning (S101).

Coloring correct answer image data of the number of pixels of W×H of theline drawing data and the coloring correct answer image data prepared asthe sets are input as a reference image to the encoder, and the encoderextracts a local style map composed of W×H×C local styles (S102). Thatis, the local style map corresponding to each of all the pixels of theinput coloring correct answer image data is generated.

At least one local style of the W×H×C local styles extracted by theencoder is picked up (for example, randomly picked up), and the pickedup local style is input together with the line drawing data to thedecoder (S103). In this case, with respect to the designation of theapplication place of the local style for the line drawing data, an inputis given so as to apply the local style to a pixel position on the linedrawing data at the same position as a pixel position on the coloringcorrect answer image data at which the local style is picked up. Inaddition, a process of picking up the local style is to perform pick-upin both of a pattern that picks up all of the C types of local stylescorresponding to one pixel as a bundle and a pattern that picks up onlysome of the C types of local styles corresponding to one pixel. Withrespect to a pick-up rule, in addition to random pickup, any processsuch as a process of performing pick-up according to a predeterminedrule may be used. Learning including a pattern that does not pick up anylocal style may be performed. When considering convenience of the user,it is preferable that both of coloring that applies the local style andcoloring that does not apply the local style can be performed.

The decoder executes coloring processing that reflects the picked uplocal style on the line drawing data (S104). The decoder executes thecoloring processing to obtain colored image data.

Then, loss of the colored image data with respect to the coloringcorrect answer image data is calculated by a loss function, using thecolored image data obtained by the decoder and the coloring correctanswer image data (S105). Finally, parameters of the encoder and thedecoder are updated so as to reduce the loss calculated by the lossfunction (S106). The updating process of the parameters of the encoderand the decoder may be repeated until the loss is reduced to be lessthan a threshold value.

Steps S101 to S106 of FIG. 3 indicate one cycle as a minimum unit of thelearning. Learning of a considerable number of cycles can be repeated,and learning is completed in a step where appropriate extraction of thelocal style and acquisition of the colored image data in whichappropriate coloring is performed become possible. Parameters and thelike of the encoder at the completion of the learning are acquired asthe learned model for a local style, parameters and the like of thedecoder at the completion of the learning are acquired as the learnedmodel for coloring, and the acquired parameters are in the storing unit17.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of coloring processing in the linedrawing automatic coloring device 10 according to the presentdisclosure. The coloring processing in the line drawing automaticcoloring device 10 according to the present embodiment is started byacquiring the line drawing data (step S201). For example, the userselects the line drawing data of the target to be colored, such that theacquisition of the line drawing data is performed.

Then, the reference image data from which the user desires to extractthe local style is acquired (step S202). In the acquired reference imagedata, the place at which the user desires to extract the local style isdesignated (step S203). Then, the local style of the designated place isextracted (step S204). The extraction of the local style is performedbased on, for example, the learned model for a local style learned inadvance using the training data. Next, a position on the line drawingdata to which the user desires to apply the extracted local style isdesignated (step S205). The above steps S201 to S205 can be executedbased on a graphical user interface. For example, it is conceivable todisplay the acquired line drawing data and the acquired reference imagedata on respective display regions provided in a display screen,designate the extraction place of the local style by selecting adisplayed reference image by, for example, a pointer of a mouse, anddesignate the application place of the local style by the pointer of themouse for the displayed line drawing.

After executing steps S201 to S205, an input of the user for whether ornot to extract and apply another local style is received, and it isdetermined whether or not to extract and apply another local style (stepS206). When it is desired to extract and apply another local style(S206—Y), steps S201 to S205 are executed once again. The step can berepeated. When there is no need to extract another local style (S206—N),the coloring processing proceeds to the next step S207.

The coloring processing is executed on the entirety of the line drawingdata while reflecting the local style on the designated place using theline drawing data, the local style, and the designation of theapplication place of the local style as inputs (step S207). The coloringprocessing is performed based on the learned model for coloring in whichit is learned in advance to perform the coloring processing reflectingthe local style on the line drawing data. The colored image dataobtained by the coloring processing can be provided as, for example, agraphical user interface that causes the user to show a coloring stateby displaying the colored image data instead of the line drawing data ona display region displaying the line drawing data on the display screen.An input of the user for whether or not the colored image data needs tobe corrected is received, and it is determined whether or not thecolored image data needs to be corrected (step S208). When the userdesires to modify the colored image data (S208—Y), steps S201 to S205are executed once again. In this case, steps S201 to S205 can beexecuted again in a state in which the extracted local style and thedesignation of the application place of the local style are maintained.When the colored image data does not need to be modified, (S208—N), thecoloring processing ends.

As described above, according to the line drawing automatic coloringdevice 10 according to the present embodiment, with respect to the linedrawing data of the target to be colored, the local style desired by theuser is extracted from the reference image data, the place to which theextracted local style is applied is designated in the line drawing data,and the coloring processing can be executed. Therefore, it can realizeautomatic coloring processing reflecting the local styles related to thecoloring characters such as the texture, the gradation, the paintingstyle, the pattern, the highlight, and the shadow as well as the colorat the place desired by the user in the line drawing data. In addition,when designating the local style, plural types of local stylessimultaneously extracted for the same pixel can be designated as abundle and only some local styles of plural types of local stylessimultaneously extracted for the same pixel can be selected anddesignated. Therefore, for example, a local style in which the userdesires to reflect only the texture without reflecting the color can bedesignated, such that the user experience is improved.

In some embodiments, the place to which the local style desired by theuser is applied is designated with respect to the line drawing data ofthe target to be colored, and the coloring processing can be executed.In other words, it is possible to realize the automatic coloringprocessing reflecting the local styles related to the coloring such asthe texture, the gradation, the painting style, the pattern, thehighlight, and/or the shadow as well as the color at the place desiredby the user in the line drawing data. The local style may be extractedfrom the place designated by the user in the reference image in a statein which the reference image is acquired and be reflected on the linedrawing data, or may be selected from the library by the user in a statein which a plurality of local styles are extracted in advance and arestored in the storing unit as the library and be reflected on the linedrawing data. In addition, in the local style, plural types of localstyles simultaneously extracted for the same pixel can be designated asa bundle or only some local styles of plural types of local stylessimultaneously extracted for the same pixel can be selected anddesignated. Therefore, for example, a local style in which the userdesires to reflect only the texture without reflecting the color can bedesignated, such that the user experience is improved.

Second Embodiment

A case in which the user selects the reference image data from which theuser desires to extract the local style and extracts the local stylefrom the reference image data has been described in the firstembodiment, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In asecond embodiment, an embodiment in which plural types of local stylesare extracted in advance by extraction processing and are stored in astorage means and a user selects and uses a local style that the userdesires to use among the plural types of local styles is described.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a line drawingautomatic coloring device 20 according to a second embodiment. As shownin FIG. 5, the line drawing automatic coloring device 20 includes atleast a line drawing data acquiring unit 11, a local style designationreceiving unit 21, a coloring processing unit 16, and a storing unit 22.It is to be noted that components denoted by the same reference numeralsas those of FIG. 1 according to the first embodiment perform the samefunctions as those of FIG. 1 in the present embodiment, and adescription thereof is thus be omitted.

The local style designation receiving unit 21 has a function ofreceiving at least one local style designation for applying a selectedlocal style to any place of acquired line drawing data. The local styledesignation according to the present embodiment is performed in a formin which the user selects a desired local style from a local stylelibrary in which the plural types of local styles are extracted inadvance and stored and designates a place on the line drawing data onwhich the user desires to reflect the selected local style.

It is noted that the local style designation receiving unit 21 in thepresent embodiment may have the same function as the function ofextracting the local style from the reference image data and reflectingthe extracted local style on the line drawing data, which is performedin the reference image acquiring unit 12, the local style extractionplace designating unit 13, the local style extracting unit 14, and thelocal style application designating unit 15 in the first embodiment.That is, the local style designation receiving unit 21 may have bothfunctions so that the local style may be extracted and used from thereference image data or may be selected and used from the local stylelibrary.

The storing unit 22 similarly stores data stored in the storing unit 17in the first embodiment and required for various processing and dataobtained as a result of the processing, and also stores the local stylelibrary constituted by the plural types of local styles extracted inadvance. It is preferable that the local style libraries can beclassified and sorted depending on desired conditions such as a type oftexture, author and the like so as to be easily used by the user.

A flow of coloring processing in the line drawing automatic coloringdevice 20 according to the second embodiment is the same as of thecoloring processing in FIG. 4 except that processing in which the userselects the desired local style with reference to the local stylelibrary stored in the storing unit 22 and designates a position on theline drawing data on which the user desires to reflect the selectedlocal style is executed instead of the processing of extracting andapplying the local style from the reference image data in steps S202 toS205 in FIG. 4 with respect to the coloring processing of the linedrawing automatic coloring device 10 according to the first embodiment.

As described above, according to the line drawing automatic coloringdevice 20 according to the second embodiment, the place to which thelocal data desired by the user is applied is designated with respect toline drawing data of a target to be colored with reference to the localstyle library, and the coloring processing can be executed. Therefore,it is possible to realize automatic coloring processing reflecting localstyles related to coloring such as a texture, a gradation, a paintingstyle, a pattern, a highlight, and a shadow as well as a color at theplace desired by the user in the line drawing data. Since the localstyle library is created in advance and the user can select the localstyle from the local style library, a frequently used local style can beused for the coloring processing without being extracted from thereference image data each time, such that convenience of the user isimproved.

A case in which the coloring processing is executed after thedesignation of all the local styles ends when the designation of thelocal styles for the line drawing data is performed plural times hasbeen described in the first and second embodiments, but the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto. For example, the coloring processingmay be frequently executed each time the designation of the applicationplace of the local style from the reference image data or thedesignation of the application place of the local styled from the localstyle library is performed on the line drawing data. As described above,by executing the coloring processing each time and displaying thecolored image data on the display region of the display screen eachtime, the user can designate an application place of the next localstyle while confirming a state of a colored image changed each time theapplication place of the local style is designated, such that the userexperience is improved.

The coloring processing that applies the local style has been describedin the first and second embodiments, but there are many local styleshaving directionality or regularity such as a gradation or a pattern.When applying these local styles to the designated place of the linedrawing data, a function of performing conversion processing such asconverting angles of the local styles, converting hues of the localstyles, or changing orientations of gradations of the local styles maybe added. As a result, the user experience is further improved.

In the first and second embodiments, after the extraction place of thelocal style is designated, the place to which the extracted local styleis applied is determined by designating any place from the line drawingdata displayed on the display screen by the user, who provides theinstruction via a user interface. In this case, a function of informingthe user of the place on the line drawing data related to the place atwhich the local style is extracted may be provided.

Processing using an existing image recognition technique, such aspattern matching or object detection is performed on each of thereference image data and the line drawing data to extract with whichplace on the line drawing data a feature of an image of the extractionplace of the local style has a high relationship. For example, when theuser selects an “eye” portion of a person on the reference image data byclicking the mouse, a place corresponding to a feature of an “eye” isextracted from the line drawing data using an existing image recognitiontechnique and is presented in a form in which it can be recognized bythe user. For example, a method of informing the user of thecorrespondence by blinking an “eye” portion on the line drawing datadisplayed on the display screen or temporarily changing a color of the“eye” portion is conceivable.

Likewise, when a specific place on the line drawing data previouslydisplayed on the display screen is selected by a click or the like bythe mouse, candidate places of a local style that are to be applied tothe selected place may be extracted by performing processing using animage recognition technique.

In addition, the candidate places are not only extracted by performingthe processing using the image recognition technique, but coloringprocessing reflecting the local style may also be automatically executedby automatically performing selection among the extracted candidateplaces.

Further, when a plurality of targets on which the user desires toperform the same coloring processing appear, for example, when the samecharacter repeatedly appears in a plurality of frames in comics or whenthe same character appears in a plurality of line drawing data of atarget to be colored, the extracted local style may be simultaneouslyapplied to these targets. Also in this case, candidate places of thetarget to be colored, having the same feature as that of the placedesignated so as to extract the local style are extracted by theexisting image recognition technique, and the extracted local style isapplied to a plurality of extracted candidate places. The processing asdescribed above is performed, such that it is possible to efficientlyperform animation creation, coloring processing of comics, and the like.

As described above, the application candidate places of the local stylein the image data are extracted from the feature of the selected placein the reference image data using the image recognition technique, orthe extraction place candidates of the local style in the referenceimage data are extracted from the feature of the selected place in theimage data using the image recognition technique, such that there is aneffect that the convenience of the user is improved.

A configuration in which the coloring processing applying the localstyle extracted from the reference image data is performed on the linedrawing data has been described in the first and second embodiments, butthe present disclosure is not limited thereto. The coloring processingaccording to the present disclosure may be applied to, for example,image data having the same property as that of the line drawing datasuch as black-and-white comics, a gray scale image, a pencil sketch, aline drawing in which a shadow, a halftone or the like is partiallywritten, and an undercoated line drawing, in addition to the linedrawing data, as long as the image data can be prepared in a pair withthe coloring correct answer image data and learning can be performedbased on the image data.

In the case of the line drawing data, the line drawing data that becomesa set by performing edge extraction processing on the coloring correctanswer image data is extracted, but it is also possible to automaticallycreate a pair before and after the coloring from a data set includingonly the coloring correct answer image data by using a standard imageprocessing technique such as grayscale processing, processing convertinga brightness into a halftone, or processing reducing the number ofcolors instead of the edge extraction processing.

1-16. (canceled)
 17. A method of automatic coloring, comprising:acquiring data of a target to be colored; receiving at least one localstyle designation for applying a selected local style to at least afirst part of the target to be colored, wherein the selected local styleis not applied to another part of the target to be colored; andperforming coloring processing reflecting the local style designation onthe first part of the target to be colored, by inputting (i) theacquired data of the target to be colored, (ii) extracted informationindicating the selected local style applied to the first part of thetarget, the extracted information being obtained from a predeterminedprocess for extracting a local style based on a user-designated part ofa reference image having the selected local style, and (iii) informationindicating a position of the first part to which the selected localstyle is applied, into a neural network system for coloring the targetto be colored, wherein the selected local style is related to a styledifferent from a color, and wherein the neural network system isobtained based on at least a training process using image data to becolored and answer image data of the image data to be colored.